aggiejim,
If you are signed up with only 25 companies, and have shopped for fewer than that number, you may want to wait a while before naming best and worst companies. Within 3 weeks of starting to shop I was signed up with more than 75 companies, and about a month later with about 150. I did my research on a company only when I saw that they had, or might have (at the right time of the month or quarter) a job near me. that saved a lot of time! Time to sign up with an MSC 5-10 minutes at the most. I wrote and saved a writing sample to use whenever needed.

As a new shopper, I made it my daily job to sign up with 10 companies, 5 days a week in the first month. I started with the MSPA list (back in 2005, I had not found this forum) and expanded that list later by seeing MSCs discussed on line and finding their sites. I made it my business to spend a few hours at the beginning of each month (more at the beginning of a calendar quarter) searching job boards. Within a few months, I had sent a significant number of MSCs to the bottom of my contact list, to be checked a couple of times a year when I was looking to see what MSC then had a client that had disappeared from its former MSC list.

Using this method, I was clearing $400 per month in 2 months, then more, and more. By the time that I had been shopping for 4 months, I was being contacted by email for shops and seldom went to job boards unless the month started out a bit slow. Within 4 months, I was trained and doing video shops. I learned the name and got the cell phone number of several video schedulers (There were only about 7 back then) and never looked back. I marketed myself to every scheduler I encountered. Some by just sending them an email when everything went well, since they usually only hear from a shopper when all hell is breaking loose and the shop is FUBAR. Granted, the schedulers from the huge MSCs that you recommend are too swamped for that to be effective, but by hitting schedulers at smaller companies, I became known and was soon being offered simple routes so that I could, for instance, run to the local airport and do 12 shops in 3 hours, instead of looking around for 12 shops to make a route.



Your list may be just fine for new shoppers who need to totally avoid any upfront cash outlay, but it is not realistic for someone who needs to jump in and start making at least a few hundred dollars a month from the get go. The very idea that you next best 15 MSCs will be ideal for newbies seeking advancement (at some furture date) totally misses the point that at that stage, the smaller, more regional (and therefore less likely to be good for everyone) companies are exactly the places where a serious shopper can advance more quickly up the food chain. Your "one size fits all" is a utopian dream.

One way for new shoppers to amp up their earnings is to do multi-day routes. Doing ACL hotel shops, which have easy reports, and joining the hotel chains' rewards clubs, can earn a new shopper enough free hotel nights, fairly quickly, to fund they first long distance route hotel costs, and even pocket some of the travel bonus for those shops instead of spending it on hotels. Aggie, I think you may be missing some of the subtleties of building up a shopper's portfolio of opportunities. Having 7-10 free hotel nights "in the bank" at all times is worth a bundle, and it's all tax free.

I think it is clear - one persons trash is another's treasure. The only advice I would give a new shopper is to do some research and start signing up. And if you don't like the MSC, move on.

I don't take a lot of shops with Intellishop anymore, and there were certainly some concerns with the lots of shops I used to do for them, just because of the nature of the shops. But I have to say, I did make some fairly decent money for fairly easy work, back when they still had the toilet shops!

walesmaven Wrote:
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> Aggie, I
> think you may be missing some of the subtleties of
> building up a shopper's portfolio of
> opportunities. Having 7-10 free hotel nights "in
> the bank" at all times is worth a bundle, and it's
> all tax free.

Right you are, and there are things I don't know that more experienced shoppers know of course. I've never done an ACL hotel shop because on my routes I prefer to car camp in an SUV or even camp outside. I have been camping and climbing through Colorado and Wyoming this past week. Have avoided hotels because of the cost. Car camping isn't for the faint of heart. Here in the western USA there are many places to pull over and sleep in a car. Last night I slept in the Medicine Bow National Forest not far from that rest area on I-80 outside Laramie. Shopping covers all of my expenses but these tips I'm reading are making me think its time to take the plunge and do a hotel shop.

My take is different, in that I am not a video shopper. Signed with enough companies that have beneficial shops in my area, it is possible to regularly net in excess of a thousand a month. We are all at the mercy of geography and availability. I'm in an area richer than some, poorer than others. Hotel shops are beneficial, when they can be put into play with a bigger picture.

optikdave Wrote:
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> Intellishop, because I get my oil changed monthly
>
I did an oil change shop for Intellishop my car requires synthetic blend, cost $53 total they will pay $22 and no fee. The is anothe company out there I have done opil changes for they have paid the full amount and a fee.
I did a route for Intellishop, took 3 weeks to get the items from them to do it, 3 weeks of no shops because I supposed to do this shop on my day off. I uploaded it Thursday they are still screwing around with the documents I uploaded and taking off points and all emails are not answered or bounce, phone calls get voice mails. I emailed the scheduler on Wednesday no reply still.
They want the forms on one page, their system split the forms up between two pages for each one. and printed 10 pages. 5 shops 50 pages of ink. Also they had no place for the customer to sign on the form unlike the sample form with this shop.

Ritter is the one I started with and they have been good to me with shops.
Market force if you get a scheduler from out of the country they harrass you when you try to say no but get one from in the country you can finagle a little extra bonus out of the shop

aggiejim72 Wrote:
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> I've found it takes 1 hour from start to finish to
> locate a company to join after doing some
> research, then joining the MSC, then looking at
> their board only to learn that they have no jobs
> in my area. There are perhaps 25 MSCs that I've
> joined off the list at this site, so 25 hours
> spent to find no work in my area. Is there no
> better way to find MSCs with local work?

I'm not sure if it is a better way or just another way to find MSCs with local work, but I chose to go about this sign-up process differently. Rather than spend a lot of time researching, I went alphabetically down the list of MSCs on this site. I signed up with them all, unless I didn't like the look of their website when I logged in to register. If I saw something I didn't like, I skipped them. I found registering with multiple companies to be fast and easy. I made an index card for each one when I registered, noting login info/password. I have a huge card file of companies I registered with, some of whom I have never worked for.

Before accepting the first assignment with a "new to me" company, I came here and researched. If there were any payment issues or a massive number of issues that looked unpleasant to me, I did not take the assignment. That way, I didn't spend a lot of time researching companies that may or may not have local jobs. I spent my research time on the companies who DID have jobs available.

One thing I've learned over the last six years is that just because a company does not have local jobs today, it does not mean they will NEVER have local jobs. Some of my most profitable jobs have been with companies I registered with in 2008 and never worked with ..... until one day a great job popped up, and I was registered and ready. My current best-friend-MSC is one of the first I registered with - 2008 - and it had no local jobs until 2012 - but now it has some interesting and well-paying assignments in my area. With clients shifting to other MSCs and new clients deciding to be shopped, you never know which companies will suddenly have work in your area.

There are two companies I registered with back in 2008. For each I completed only a shop or two before deciding they were not worth my while, one because they were too persnickety for the pay and the other because of looooong payment terms. Each now has a client who has to decided to give video shopping a try. The persnickety company has a report, but the pay more than offsets the extra time. The company with the bad payment terms is expediting payment for their video shops.

The moral: short of non-payment, there really is no such thing as a bad company and registering for as many as possible is not a waste of time.

LisaSTL Wrote:
> The moral: short of non-payment, there really is
> no such thing as a bad company and registering for
> as many as possible is not a waste of time.

Is it also true that if you shop in Oklahoma and register with an MSC that only has shops available in Maine that you didn't just waste your time?

Read the last paragraph in the post from AustinMom. The biggest mistake new shoppers make is not having simple processes in place for registering with new companies. More companies equals more opportunities.

walesmaven Wrote:
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> aggiejim,
> If you are signed up with only 25 companies, and
> have shopped for fewer than that number, you may
> want to wait a while before naming best and worst
> companies.

I am signed up with 64 companies, about 25 of which have no work in my area. Wished I hadn't signed up with them (yet) and instead signed up with 25 that had work in my area.

In my second month of shopping I made $674 from MF, and month 3 I made $1035 from MF, $854 of which was in fees. I was only shopping for 4 other companies at that time.

By listing my best and worst companies now, while I am relatively new to shopping, I am giving shoppers who are newer, like me, an opportunity to get my point of view. As I've learned from the replies, some of the things I thought were true are not, and there are some good aspects to the bad companies I listed.

aggiejim72 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LisaSTL Wrote:
> > The moral: short of non-payment, there really
> is
> > no such thing as a bad company and registering
> for
> > as many as possible is not a waste of time.
>
> Is it also true that if you shop in Oklahoma and
> register with an MSC that only has shops available
> in Maine that you didn't just waste your time?

This industry is in continuous flux. I started a little more than six months, and I've already seen clients jump from company to company. So, if and when next month your Maine MSC acquires a nationwide client, you'll be in on the ground floor. When your Maine client takes a client away from the MSC that you shop for all the time, you'll make a seamless transition, rather than coming to the boards begging: "Who does so-and-so?"

Ishmael Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> aggiejim72 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > LisaSTL Wrote:
> > > The moral: short of non-payment, there really
> > is
> > > no such thing as a bad company and
> registering
> > for
> > > as many as possible is not a waste of time.
> >
> > Is it also true that if you shop in Oklahoma
> and
> > register with an MSC that only has shops
> available
> > in Maine that you didn't just waste your time?
>
> This industry is in continuous flux. I started a
> little more than six months, and I've already seen
> clients jump from company to company. So, if and
> when next month your Maine MSC acquires a
> nationwide client, you'll be in on the ground
> floor. When your Maine client takes a client away
> from the MSC that you shop for all the time,
> you'll make a seamless transition, rather than
> coming to the boards begging: "Who does
> so-and-so?"

And until that time that you have wasted your time. Agreed.

>
> And until that time that you have wasted your
> time. Agreed.

Absolute nonsense. I've made an investment that paid off.

Aggie, if you can understand that your travel style may not me a good fit for everyone, why is it such a leap to grasp that your shopping style may not be a fit for everyone?

Some people like narrative…others do not. Some want experiences and others just want money. Some want checks. Others want Paypal, shorter payment terms, no returns, longer reporting windows, Mac compatibility, no printing requirements, etc. etc.

If there was one specific answer to the best way to start off mystery shopping, there's a pretty good chance that it would have been posted here previously.

aggiejim72 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> And until that time that you have wasted your
> time. Agreed.


I do not understand why you are being so argumentative with other shoppers who are giving you GREAT advice. Are you another forum member who likes to argue for the sake of arguing?

I think it is more of a waste of time to create all these "lists" to help newbie shoppers when there is so much info already posted in a whole section for them. Instead you could use that extra time in your life to sign up with more MSCs for the many reasons already mentioned in this thread. The person who said something about already being registered with a particular MSC when a client decides to jump companies is a perfect example of reality in the MS World. I have experienced that same scenario several times in the past three years.

How many hours a week do you spend watching TV? You could be registering with new MSCs, doing research on the forum and checking job boards instead of just sitting on your couch watching mindless shows.

I received my check for these shops on 7/18/14 like clockwork.

buteos Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It took Maritz almost a month to pay me for those
> DIY bonused shops. I love A Closer Look and Coyle.

If I had to pick a great company to start with, it would be the company I started with in March of 2013... Sinclair Consumer Metrics may not pay the absolute fastest (and they pay by check), but I started out doing easy pretzel shops and they add up. 5 minutes at most doing the shop and 5-10 minutes on the shop reports. The schedulers are some of the most helpful I have come across; especially Bobby Withrow and Gina Hernandez.

I wonder how you are recharing your video equipment while camping out overnight.

I do not know about charging video equipment but I charge my cell phone, laptop and DSLRs batteries while on camping trips. Primitive camping is more challenging but if I am doing primitive camping, electronics are not a priority.

There are solar chargers people use when camping. Also, many cars now have plugs in them that can be used for charging items. Hybrid cars have huge batteries that can be accessed. Camping isn't what it used to be.

I love trensource for many reasons. Im still pretty new, they were my first. I appreciate this post to see how others' experiences jive with mine...when wondering if it's 'just me' in various circumstances.

Aggiejim 72

I totally disagree with you about companies. I believe only individual shoppers can know what MSC works for them and what ones don't. Even MSC's that you have a problem with, editors and schedulers, some are great and others are awful. I still shop for companies that I don't care for all of their editors or schedulers. Most of the time I work it out with them.

I do think that it is irresponsible to tell new shoppers who they should shop for and why! We all have our choices to make for whatever reason. We also live in different parts of the country and we might be treated differently by individual MSC employees.

Worst Companies: Trendsource - low pay, lots of work, rarely get shop
Reality Search Group - unreasonable correction time, unreasonable editors
mVentix - very short correction time - 4 hours, very low pay, high demand
Bare - picky editors, hard to deal with

Best Companies: Harland Clarke - pay great, pay fast, easy to work with editors
Intellishop - they've taken a lot of abuse here on this forum, but they treat me well, editors are usually really good to work with and i get paid usually in 3 weeks.

I can't recommend any others right now.

This is the first time I've ever seen mVentix on a worst list, ever. The clients and scenarios got old for me. Otherwise they are the easiest reports around. OTOH, Harland Clarke is the Coyle of bank shops. So I would definitely consider mVentix to be the more newbie friendly of the two.v

Love, love, your critique on Intellishop... stopped shopping for them a few years ago for the same reasons. Recently started again. $10 shop+ 10 emails and phone calls because the shop guidelines said twice if a price quote is not submitted you don't get paid. Ok, I'm going to write a report and NOT get paid because the company refused to give me a price quote? Email the scheduler and she is rude and says," Who said you're not getting paid?" UH...It says it twice in your guidelines, I replied. This was originally an $8 fee for this shop and all the grief that went with it. Tells me to submit the shop which she knows I can't, because I don't have the price quote to upload, or the proper response to check off (no quote given) offered to submit the shop. I then get told I am rude and no longer can shop for them (like I would). Please don't do me any favors Inhellishop, or send me desperate emails to do a shop, because you can't figure out why you don't have anybody who wants to shop for you.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2014 08:44PM by mariuche.

Who is Reality Search Group? And Mventix has the easiest reports around. True, no bonuses that I have seen but the shops I have done were quick and easy.
I received a check from Maritz on July 18th for shops done in the third week in June.

dwamhoff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Worst Companies: Trendsource - low pay, lots of
> work, rarely get shop


> Bare - picky editors, hard to deal with

The reason I like Bare for newer shoppers (like myself) is because you can find Scenario A&B bonused shops for $20-$45 in the sticks. And to get the better scores if a new shopper records the interaction covertly you can grab accurate quotes by the associate which will also shop up on the client's surveillance, and doing so gets the high scores with Bare editors I've found. I have a Bare shop this week that is bonused $50 for a total of $75 for a simple shop in the sticks. Can work around editors as long as the shop pays well.

Trendsource 100% agreement.

Recording a shop is fine as long as it is in a one party consent state.